May 2023

Police had intelligence on child sex pervert for a year before arresting him

A Stoke-on-Trent man was free to carry on accessing some of the worst types of child sex images for a year after police first received intelligence about him.

Local officers had been made aware of Steven Carrie in April 2019, and the information was passed to the team set up to investigate online child sex abuse

But it was not until around a year later that he was arrested and interviewed.

Last week, Carrie, 44, was in court to plead guilty to three charges of making indecent images of children, and a further count of voyeurism, plus a charge of possessing bestiality images.

He had 4,281 of images classed as Category A – the worst type.

Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court heard from prosecutor Anthony Longworth that when police visited Carrie’s home, they found indecent images on his phone, and seized eight devices.

On one was a folder containing a ‘jazz guide’ including graphic descriptions of offending against small children.

Defending Carrie, who at the time of his offending lived in Newcastle but now lives in Campbell Road in Stoke, Rob Holt said his client had no previous convictions.

He added: “I can’t account for why it took 12 months for police to act on the intelligence they had.

“It seems to be that there was a 12 month delay … a further 12 months of offending.”

The judge, Mr Justice Edward Pepperall, gave Carrie a 32 month prison sentence and as part of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) banned him from living in a house where any females under 16 were present.

The unit responsible for investigating Carrie had previously been criticised for the time it was taking to investigate intelligence it had received.

Operation Safenet was found to have significant weaknesses by inspectors who reviewed the unit in 2022 – up to three years after Carrie’s offending was first reported to them.

Among the problems identified with the unit were staff shortages and a failure to assess the risk that certain suspects might present.

The 2021/22 Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) report warned that the team was understaffed and had a backlog of cases.

The report added that: “Due to the backlogs resulting from not having enough staff, many referrals wait several months before any action is taken.”

Staffordshire Police said that “once a case is referred, we risk assess each and every case, prioritising those presenting the most immediate risk”.

But the HMICFRS report found that in recent years, the force “didn’t have a process in place to review the intelligence it holds on possible suspects to see if the case is high risk”.

It also warned this might result in “missed opportunities to safeguard children”.

The report added: “We found that the Safenet team wasn’t operating with the appropriate levels of staff as set out by the force. This meant that there was a limited number of operational officers available to manage all Safenet warrants, arrests, searches, seizures and interviews.

“We identified that the force is unable to keep up with the current demand for enforcement, and as a result there is a backlog of work. We also found that there is little resilience to manage referrals, meaning that productivity is reduced, which adds to the backlog.

“Therefore, there is a potential level of risk to children who could be exposed to further harm.